Remembering Zoe Lund

byRobert Nagleon11/29/2003

Husband writes about deceased wife and radical actress Zoe Lund, who wrote, directed and acted in many films, most notably Bad Lieutenant. The essay concludes:

“That which is not yet, but ought to be, is more real than that which merely is.” This is the primary line spoken by her character in the short film Hot Ticket which she improvised at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 1993 (see the essay by Nicole Brenez in the ?Zo? Lund Cinematheque?). It was always meant to convey the revolutionary’s dream of a brighter world, a focus on a future better than the corrupt present. I fear Zo? believed in this statement to an excessive extreme at times, sometimes forgetting the distinction between the ‘official story’ at the centre of some of her hype and the reality of life. She may have been clinging to this principle, for instance, when she used to tell me, during the years after she had left for Paris with the boyfriend, that they were planning to move to the French countryside and have children. ‘That which merely was’ consisted of the fact that they were living a squalid existence in Paris, dealing and using cocaine, which turned out to have very real effects upon her life (and, sadly, ended it). It remains a profound statement to me, although it highlights the importance of moderation in all areas.

A beautiful as well as a useful site about an extraordinary (and a flawed) personality. Sometimes I wonder what would happen to nobodies like me if an untimely death were to come. My writings, my creative output would be scattered, unknown, unnoticed.

The Zoe quote is nice, and reminds me of my own original statement, Art Anticipates Life .